The UIS provide a managed Windows device service - UMD - whereby they look after the software and updates of a desktop or a laptop they you purchase. The PartIII room contains a handful of such devices for people to use, these are shared devices. For personal devices it is up to the user to determine what software is installed, the catalog of available applications is available through the application 'Company Portal'. If the required software isn't listed then the user needs to request it via an online form.
Maths IT staff have very little admin rights to the computer. They can not install software for you. They can setup or reinstall a computer for you but no more. The rest is controlled by the UIS.
Getting started page
Users sign into a UMD device with their CRSid@cam.ac.uk username and their password they use for Outlook and Raven. The first time they sign into a UMD device they will need to wait for anything up to 1 hour for the software to be installed for them, most importantly the 'Company Portal'. Once the Company Portal is installed they can then download applications like Adobe Acrobat etc. When Company Portal starts it should ask you which institution you work at. When it asks you this information is very random, it can take hours/days for this to happen. Selecting your institution will change your device into a 'Single User' device (which is what you need for laptops that are used by one person). It will also then list per-institution software e.g. OpenVPN.
I few points to note:
- The only way to print to Maths printers from a UMD device is via webprint - https://webprint.maths.cam.ac.uk/. When Maths uses DS-Print then things will be different and a lot easier.
- By default when a user signs into Onedrive on a UMD device, their Desktop, Pictures and My Documents will be moved to Onedrive.
- A new laptop can be ordered from Dell and they will make it a UMD device for a small fee and ship straight to the end user wherever they live.
- A UMD device can work on a home WiFi network, it doesn't have to be on Eduroam. Your laptop can even be reinstalled at home if need be.
- For help and support with a UMD device talk direct to the UIS Helpdesk. Maths Helpdesk has no control over these devices.
- Create a new Shared Onedrive (equivalent of Role Drive) - https://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/service/collaboration/365/teams/how-request-new-team
- If you use Firefox, you may wish to create a Firefox profile so that you can sync your desktop PC firefox bookmarks etc to the UMD device. The same can be said for Chrome and'or MS Edge.
- How to setup a University of Cambridge VPN connection. This is different to a Maths VPN conneciton.
- UIS Sharepoint https://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/service/collaboration/365/sharepoint
- To speed up the Company Portal -> Institution, got to https://portal.manage.microsoft.com/ instead.
To see Maths home directory and/or Role drives users will need to map a drive after connecting to Maths via the Maths VPN service using the application OpenVPN. OpenVPN can be installed via the application 'Company Portal'. NOTE you will need to of set the institution to 'Faculty of Mathematics' first, set within Company Portal. As of Feb 2024 there are plans to scrap the Maths VPN server therefore another method of connecting into Maths will be needed and documented.
A script to map drives can be found below. To use this script copy the code below.
Now single right click on an empty space on the desktop and create a new TEXT file. Within this file paste the code you've just copied. Save the file as 'Map drive.bat'. What will happen is the file will be saved as 'Map drive.bat.txt', the file needs to be renamed and the '.txt' part removed. You'll see the icon for the file change when it's renamed.
You can now double click on the desktop icon to run the code. The first time you run it you will be asked for your CRSid and you Maths password. Once entered they will be saved so you won't need to enter them in the future. The code will then ask you if you want to map a drive to the list of role drives and if you want to map a drive to your N:\ drive (users of Windows desktops will be familiar with the N:\ drive).
@echo off
:: Script to be used along with OpenVPN to map the N: drive to the user Maths home directory
:: as well as mapping Role Drive to R:
:: C. Mortimer Feb 2024
set HOME_LETTER=n:
set ROLE_LETTER=r:
set DOMAIN=maths.cam.ac.uk
set HOME_PATH=\\%DOMAIN%\home-space
set ROLE_PATH=\\%DOMAIN%\role-space
set COUNT_MAX=14
set COUNT=1
set MATHS_USERNAME=
if exist %HOME_LETTER% net use %HOME_LETTER% /d
if exist %ROLE_LETTER% net use %ROLE_LETTER% /d
:cred_check
set MATHS_USERNAME=%USERNAME%
cmdkey /list|findstr admaths\%MATHS_USERNAME% 1>NULL
if errorlevel 1 goto save_cred
goto map_role
:save_cred
set /p MATHS_USERNAME="Enter your CRSid (Press Enter to use %MATHS_USERNAME%): "
cmdkey /add:%DOMAIN% /user:admaths\%MATHS_USERNAME% /pass:
:map_role
net use %ROLE_LETTER% %ROLE_PATH% /savecred /p:yes
set /p MAP_HOME_Q="Do you wish to map a drive to your N: drive [Y/N]? "
if /I "%MAP_HOME_Q%" EQU "Y" goto :map_home
if /I "%MAP_HOME_Q%" EQU "N" explorer %ROLE_LETTER% & goto :end
:map_home
net use %HOME_LETTER% %HOME_PATH% /savecred /p:yes
explorer %HOME_LETTER%
explorer %ROLE_LETTER%
:end
